Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: 2014 – 2015 UN Security Council Elections and R2P
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Egypt Unlawfully Detaining and Deporting Hundreds Of Syrian Refugees: Amnesty International Says
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt–Amnesty International has accused the Egypt government of unlawfully detaining and deporting hundreds of Syrian refugees, including women and children, who had fled their homes to escape the violence in Syria. .
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The Syrian civil war has uprooted approximately 7 million people since the uprising began in March 2011. More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed since the start of the conflict and more than 2 million Syrians have fled their homes and sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
Quoting UNHCR, the United Nations agency for refugees, Amnesty said 946 people had been arrested by Egypt while attempting the crossing, and that 724 remained in detention. According to Amnesty the Egyptian navy has intercepted around 13 boats in the Mediterranean carrying refugees from Syria. The refugees were attempting to reach and seek refuge in Europe. According to Amnesty International 12 people drowned after a boat carrying Syrian refugees capsized off the cost of Alexandria.
Sherif Elsayed Ali, Amnesty’s head of refugee and migrants’ rights, said in a statement on Thursday that; “Instead of offering vital help and support to refugees from Syria, the Egyptian authorities are arresting and deporting them, flouting human rights standards.” He said the Egyptian state had failed to “meet its international obligations to protect even the most vulnerable refugees.”
Refugees detained by Egyptian forces must decide between accepting deportation or accepting prolonged, indefinite and unlawful detention in Egypt. Lawyers told Amnesty International that in at least two instances refugees were collectively deported back to Damascus, Syria, which would constitute a violation of international law, Non-refoulement prohibits the deportation of persecuted persons back to the state that is violating their human rights. “Sending refugees back to a bloody conflict zone is a serious violation of international law. Refugees who have fled are at an obvious risk of human rights abuses,” said Sherif Elsayed Ali.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Amnesty International’s report was “inaccurate and does not reflect the reality of [Syrians’] situation in the country” and said “There is no policy of deportation of our Syrian brothers and the vast majority of them live in peace.” However Egypt has recently began to require Syrians and other foreign nationals to acquire visas from Egyptian consulates aboard before entering the country.
The Egyptian media has accused Syrian refugees of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and has even accused refuges of being involved in the violence that occurred after President Mohamed Morsi was removed from power in Egypt. Popular media outlasts have accused Syrian refugees of attacking Egyptian civilians and security forces and of participating in the Rabaa El Adawiya and Al-Nahda sit-ins, which began in June and were brutally broken up by Egyptian authorities on August 14.
The anti-Syrian refugee propaganda heard over Egyptian airwaves is being felt by Egyptian refugees in the streets of Egypt’s cities; one Syrian refugee, whose family is living in a neighbourhood of 6 October City, outside Cairo, said her children cannot play outside anymore because “they are cursed by the other kids, told really bad words.”
For more information please see:
Al Jazeera – Egypt Accused of Unlawfully Detaining Syrians – 17 October 2013
Amnesty International – Egypt: End Deplorable Detention And Deportation Of Refugees From Syria – 17 October 2013
Amnesty International – We Cannot Live Here Anymore’: Refugees From Syria In Egypt – 17 October 2013
Huffington Post – Egypt Unlawfully Detains Syrian Refugees, Including Children, Amnesty International Says – 17 October 2013
European Nations Punish War Criminals across Time and Afterlife
By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
BRUSSELS, European Union – Across Europe, war criminals were promised punishment regardless of the era in which their crimes were committed. The rest of the West has begun responding in kind.
In Bosnia, war crimes charges are sought against many from the Serb minority that armed themselves to expel and kill non-Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
In September 2013, the United States announced that it would extradite Almaz Nezirovic to face war crimes charges for his involvement in beating, humiliating, and traumatizing unarmed prisoners.
On 17 October 2013, prosecutors stated that eight men were arrested in Rogatica, where the alleged crimes occurred in September 1992. The men were suspected of participation in looting, expelling, and killing civilians. One suspect allegedly gunned down 20 Muslim civilians who attempted to hide in a barn from Serbian soldiers.
Based on a July 2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, on 9 October 2013, Bosnia’s war crimes court ordered retrials for three men convicted of war crimes related to the Bosnian War.
Their appeal successfully claimed that Bosnian courts improperly tried them under a criminal code that took force when the war crimes court was set up, about a decade after the crimes were committed. The retrials will be based on the 1976 criminal code, which was in effect during the Bosnian War.
In Hungary, for the first time, authorities charged former Interior Minister Bela Biszku with war crimes connected to the suppression of a 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, which threatened Moscow’s control of Eastern Europe for the first time since World War II.
The suppression of that rebellion caused the mass deaths and arrests of civilians, and impacted the world’s perception of communist rule in Eastern Europe. In their statement, prosecutors claimed 46 civilians were killed in Salgotarjan alone.
Prosecutors charged Biszku with abetting a Communist Party committee involved in ordering civilian deaths in December 1956, during Salgotarjan and Budapest protests. Further, in September 2012, prosecutors found cause for additional charges when investigators searched Biszku’s home and seized 11 pieces of ammunition that he kept without permission.
Biszku’s prosecution became possible through a 2011 law that stipulates war crimes and crimes against humanity do not lapse.
In Italy, authorities refused to allow convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke to be buried in their country. Protesters at his funeral suggested a landfill. Since 1998, Priebke spent a life sentence on house arrest for his role in one of Italy’s worst wartime massacres, which involved the killings of 335 civilians.
Similarly, the Vatican issued an unprecedented ban on holding the funeral in any Catholic church—although a Catholic splinter group previously accused of anti-Semitism offered to hold the ceremony.
Although Priebke fled to Argentina after the war, that country refused to allow Priebke’s body burial beside his wife. The German embassy in Rome contacted the family’s attorney, but no details have been provided.
With further support from the world, Hungary’s law that strips war crimes and crimes against humanity of any lapse may become custom.
For further information, please see:
Associated Press – Bosnian Police Arrest 8 War Crimes Suspects – October 17, 2013
The Guardian – Nazi War Criminal Erich Priebke’s Family Demand Return of His Corpse – October 17, 2013
Budapest Business Journal – War Crimes Charges Levied against Former Communist Official – October 16, 2013
Reuters – Hungary Charges Former Top Communist Official with War Crimes – October 16, 2013
BBC News – Nazi War Criminal Priebke’s Funeral Halted Amid Protests – October 15, 2013
Reuters – Bosnia to Retry Three War Crimes Convicts after European Court Ruling – October 9, 2013
United Press International – Virginia Man to Be Extradited to Bosnia to Face War Crimes Charges – September 20, 2013
Iran Urged to Stop Second Execution of Hanging Survivor
By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
TEHRAN, Iran-Amnesty International has urged Iran to stop the second execution attempt of convicted drug trafficker Alireza M who was pronounced dead after hanging from a noose for 12 minutes. The following day, mortuary staff discovered that he was still breathing.
When Alireza M’s family went to the morgue to retrieve his body, they were overjoyed that he was still alive. “We found him alive again, which made his two daughters very happy,” stated an unnamed family member.
Alireza M is now currently recovering in a hospital while it is being argued whether the law requires that he be executed for a second time. Iran’s judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, is faced with the difficult task of making the final decision.
Amnesty International has called for an immediate stay of the execution and for all other prisoners who are on death row in Iran, which currently executes more prisoners than any other country except China.
“The horrific prospect of this man facing a second hanging, after having gone through the whole ordeal already once, merely underlines the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty. The Iranian authorities must immediately halt Alireza M’s execution and issue a moratorium on all others,” stated Phillip Luther, the Middle East and Africa program director at Amnesty.
However, one official stated, “The verdict was the death sentence, and it will be carried out once the man gets well again.” Nourollah Aziz-Mohammadi, a high-ranking judge, reported that the law required the convict to be put death and back to the gallows for a second time.
“When a convict is sentenced to death, he must die after the sentence is carried out. Now that he is alive, we can say the sentence was not carried out and must be repeated,” added Aziz-Mohammadi.
Other lawyers disagree, who have signed a petition to stay the execution in this exceptional case. “In our law, nothing has been said about a person who survives hanging after 24 hours. Since the sentence was carried out, there is no reason to repeat the sentence,” said Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, a signing attorney.
“Carrying out a second execution on a man who somehow managed to survive 12 minutes of hanging-who was certified as dead and whose body was about to be turned over to his family-is simply ghastly. It betrays a basic lack of humanity that sadly underpins much of Iran’s justice system,” argued Luther.
It is believed that Iranian authorities have executed 508 people including 221 executions which were not officially confirmed throughout 2013. Amnesty claims that the majority of these executions were related to drug offences.
For more information, please see the following:
BBC-Amnesty urges Iran to spare hanging survivor’s life-17 October 2013
Independent-Amnesty urges Iran to halt second attempt to execute man who ‘survived hanging’-17 October 2013
RTE-Iran urged not to hang man who survived first execution attempt-17 October 2013
Times of India-Fate of Iran convict who survived hanging in balance-17 October 2013
China Continues Expanding Crackdown on “Rumors”, 2 More Bloggers Arrested
By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China– Police in China have arrested yet another influential blogger and are detaining a cartoonist in the government’s ever-expanding crackdown on online “rumor-mongering”, said friends and a lawyer for one of them on Thursday.
Hundreds have been detained since August, according to Chinese media and rights groups, as the government has stepped up its efforts to wipeout rumors. Most have been released, but some are still being held pending criminal charges.
This latest example, targeting bloggers, appears to suggest the new government, led by President Xi Jinping, is expanding its crackdown on dissent, although some critics have warned the move could backfire on Communist Party leaders.
“The use of these dictatorship tools to combat the criticism and grievances within civil society could be counterproductive,” said Zhang Lifan, a historian, adding that it could fuel mistrust. “It may not be beneficial for maintaining the regime.”
Dong Rubin, 51, who runs an Internet consulting company, has been arrested in southwestern Kunming on “suspicion of falsely declaring the capital in his company’s registration”, state news agency Xinhua said late on Wednesday.
Dong was suspected of illegal business operations and the crime of “creating disturbances,” Xinhua added.
Dong, who was previously asked by officials in southern Nanjing to speak about being an “online opinion leader”, is well known for participating in a 2009 online probe into the sudden death of a man in a detention house in Yunnan province.
State broadcaster CCTV showed images of Dong admitting to “exaggeration and selectively publishing information” to benefit clients. In September, state media also aired a confession by Chinese-American venture capitalist, Charles Xue, one of China’s best known online commentators.
In Beijing, cartoonist Wang Liming was taken into custody at midnight on Wednesday and has not yet been released.
Wu Gan, a close friend of Wang, spoke with Reuters. Wu said police told Wang’s girlfriend they summoned him for forwarding a microblog post about a stranded mother holding a baby who had starved to death in the flooded eastern city of Yuyao.
“Suppression of this kind by the Chinese government is of no use,” Wu said. “Rumors arise because there’s no freedom to communicate on the Internet. Arresting people will not solve the problem because the problem does not lie with the people, but with the government.”
The detentions come just over a month after China unveiled tough measures to stop the spread of what it called “irresponsible rumors,” threatening jail terms of up to three years if false online posts are widely disseminated.
China’s top court and prosecutor have said people will be charged with defamation if online rumors they create are visited by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times.
Liu Hu, a Chinese investigative journalist accused of corruption was arrested on a defamation charge late in September.
The internet censorship reveals the insecurity of the leaders of the ruling Communist Party, said Bo Zhiyue, a professor of Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore.
“They are trying to send China back all the way to the Stone Age,” Bo said. “Where is the hope for political reform? Zero.”
For more information, please see:
Voice of America– 2 Chinese Bloggers Arrested in Crackdown on Rumors — 17 October 2013
Epoch Times– Fight ‘Hostile Western Forces’ on Internet Says Chinese General — 16 October 2013
Jakarta Globe– China Holds Two Bloggers as it Expands Crackdown on Rumors — 17 October 2013
Reuters– China holds two bloggers as it expands crackdown on rumors — 17 October 2013
New York Times– In China’s Campaign Against Bloggers, a Burst of Rumor-Mongering — 16 October 2013